COVID and ticket refunds?

[riddlemethis]

Sooo, big yikes.

I am a bonus parent with 50/50 custody planning with DD and 2 kids (11 and 13) for December 27 - January 3 through a private DVC rental. We all 6 are vaccinated. (Me, Dad, Mom, Step-dad and 2 kids)

Their step-dad just tested positive and all will be quarantining with regular testing.

I am planning for the worst. Are Disney tickets really non-refundable? Are we talking "you're screwed" or is it "ehh maybe you can pull on some heart strings" nonrefundable?

If I were to get trip insurance, is it too late? Are there reputable companies? How does this work? Would it also cover me what I paid privately for the DVC? (Through Dave's)

 

[twodogs]

Sorry to hear this and hope your family do well since they are vaccinated. Disney may refund the tickets on a case by case basis, but technically, the tickets are not refundable. They do not lose their value, and you can hang on to them (even after the expire, I think) and apply the money spent to new tickets, as long as the new tickets are not less expensive than the old tickets. Definitely call and ask.

As for trip insurance, most of them require you to buy the insurance within 24-48 hours, or at most a few days, of making the first payment of any type to any vendor (tickets, DVC, etc) for the trip you are trying to insure. That is to prevent exactly what you are proposing, which is to not buy insurance until you know you will need it. They can only stay in business by people having to buy it without knowing if they will need it so that some of those people don't end up needing it, and the company keeps their premium to pay for someone else who actually uses their policy. So I don't think that will work in your case unfortunately.

For rented DVC points, I think the person with the points often loses the points if they aren't used, which is why those rentals are almost always non-refundable, no exceptions. But doesn't hurt to ask. Trip insurance CAN cover this type of thing, but again, you would have had to buy the insurance when you booked the trip.

 

[sponica]

I wouldn't do anything until you're closer to the date. It will be *tight* but depending on the time frame being proposed for the only positive test, isolation should end right before the arrival date, barring any other positive tests popping up. *Fingers crossed for you*

You won't lose the value of the tickets, you can always apply them to a future ticket purchase but I guess it doesn't hurt to ask for a refund, if you want to go that route.

Those rented points however, are another story. They are generally non refundable unless you had already purchased some sort of trip insurance which included disruption due to covid 19 as a named peril.

 

[lanejudy]

PP's are correct about tickets and DVC. Also, even if you were to secure trip insurance today, it would exclude any known issues and the positive Covid test is already a known issue.

Could the step-dad join the rest of you a couple of days late? That would allow the rest of you to travel as planned while he fulfills his quarantine and gets tested.